The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1887-07-22
LIFE IN HESTER STREET.
Commonplace Events in a Very Much
Crowded Thoroughfare.


Crowded Thoroughfare.
The student of human nature who
wishes to see what emigration is doing
for New York city should stroll into that
canyon of brick and mortar called Hester
street, east of the Bowery, some sunny
afternoon. The problem of how little
human being can eat and exist there finds
its solution. The population of this To-
cality has been largely increased of late
I by the immigration of persecuted Jews
from Russia. And most forlorn lot
they are. Hungry, unkempt and be-
whiskered, they clutter up the sidewalks,
obstructing travel, and evidently waiting
for manna to fall down from the skies
into Hester street. The effect of crowd
ing so many human beings into SO small
an area was shown by an incident which
occurred on the corner of Orchard street
the other afternoon.
A woman who had almost reached the
limit of her earthly existence fell on the
corner and lay upon her back ON the
sidewalk. 1t was instantly assumed by
the crowd which gathered around, like
! foul birds around carcass, that the
woman was drunk. There was nothing,
-
sustain this suspicion. The sun shone
down into her faded eyes and she scarce
had strength enough to close them. She
grasped at the sidewalk in a feeble cf-
fort to sit up, and the crowd stood around
and jeered at her futile struggles. No
one offered to help her, although there
were 900 able bodied men and women
standing around. A creature who wore
trousers made the timely suggestion that
the woman should be rolled into the gut
ter, which would no doubt have been
carried out had not German woman
who sells groceries near by came up with
broomstick and scattered tho mob
The first city official who arrived, on the
scene was connected in some way with
the health department. He looked ut
the PROSTATE woman, shrugged his
shoulders and lifted his hands depre-
catingly, and said he could do nothing
a police officer must be sent for. So
common are these scenes of suffering in
this locality that even the little children
squeezed themselves into the cracks in
the crowd and laughed at the misery of
the old woman as though it was a sort
of Punch and Judy show. After half an
hour of very patient waiting on the part
of the woman, and when she was almost
ready for coach with black plumes q
police officer came. AT his bidding n
vegetable vender's two wheeled cart was
brought and the woman was bundled in
with no more care than cord wood
stick. Then three stout boys seized the
cart and proceeded to ''rattle her bones
over the stones" to the police station
A large part of the retail business done
on Hester street is transacted on the side
walk. Peddlers are as plentiful as nails
in shoe, and almost everything can be
bought of them, from match to sec
ond hand pair of trousers. But the bust
est man in the street was an Irish Junk
dealer. In one hour setentcen people
came to his store with various articles TO
dispose of. A boy who carried pretzel
on a stick exchanged four pocketfuls of
old castors for two cents, and a moment
later he came out of an ice cream saloon
with two cents worth of frozen sweet
ness on piece of brown paper. The
next transaction was the transfer of 4 di-
lapidated wash boiler to the junkman for
two cents. The boiler had copper bot
tom, of which the seller was unaware.
a relative of the Wandering jew stag
gered up under the weight of big bag
full of old paper and a venerable iron
pot. He kicked vigorously when eleven
cents was mentioned as the price, but ne
finally accepted and went his way to
make room for young man who took
from the shelter of his coat tails large
piece of battered lead pipe. The sale
Ia, ala II
that by walking four blocks he would
have realized twice as much as he had
received. The boys frequently play
tricks on the junk dealer by putting
stones in the bag among the paper. They
also have careless habit of pressing on
the scales with sticks. These little tricks
anger the junk dealer. and it is cur
rently reported in the vicinity that he has
been known to use bad language when
provoked. Usually, however, the dealer
gets about all the meat there is ON the
bone. A bright eyed boy whose desire
for marbles got the better of his judg.
ment, stole six vichy water bottles from
his mother and sold them, but before lie
could get away with the spoils his mother
came down ON him like hawk on q
chicken, and the quiet CT Hester street
was disturbed by his bowls of pain.
And so the struggle goes Oh in Hester
street, as well as in other and more savory
localities, in this big town. A sort of
dog cat dog existence, in which the little
children are the sufferers. And yet they
don't seem to complain much. The
prattlc and laughter of little children is
about tho only real music of which Hes
ter street can boast. - New York Sun.